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June 2018

McKinley Mountainmen Schedule of Upcoming Events

Date Category Event Location Contact

12 Jun (Tues) Pistol Shoot MMMLRC Pistol Shoot (Monthly)

MVS Range, Mile 38 Glen Hwy, (6 pm) Outdoors

Keith Bayha: ph. (hm) 746-6662 (cell) 223-1993 Email: nohorn@gci.net

16 Jun

(Sat) Rifle Shoot MMMRC Monthly Rifle Shoot MVS Range, Mile 38 Glen Hwy,

(9 am) Outdoors Pat Reed: ph. 376-6826 Email: patreed@mtaonline.net

21 Jun (Thurs)

Meeting MMMLRC Monthly Meeting Basement Eagle River VFW (7:00 pm) Indoors

Jim Anderson: 907-952-0751 Email: manwhotaku@gci.com

21-24 Jun (Thurs-Sun)

NMLRA Shoot NMLRA Alaska Territorial

Shoot Ft Wick, Yoder Rd, Mi 3 Talkeetna Spur, Mi 98 Parks (8am-6pm Thurs-Sat) (8am-12pm Sun)

Keith Bayha: ph. (hm) 746-6662 (cell) 223-1993 Email: nohorn@gci.net

10 Jun (Tues) Pistol Shoot MMMLRC Pistol Shoot (Monthly)

MVS Range, Mile 38 Glen Hwy, (6 pm) Outdoors

Keith Bayha: ph. (hm) 746-6662 (cell) 223-1993 Email: nohorn@gci.net

13-22 Jul (Fri-2nd Sun

10 days_

Rendezvous 2018 State Rendezvous Ft Wick, Yoder Rd, Mi 3 Talkeetna Spur, Mi 98 Parks

Roger King: ph 907-349-9940

Email: readyelk@gci.net Ed Wick: ph. 907-354-0781 Email: jlldriver@hotmail.com

17 Jul (Thurs)

Meeting MMMLRC Monthly Meeting 2018 State Rendezvous Ft Wick, Yoder Rd, Mi 3 Talkeetna Spur, Mi 98 Parks

Jim Anderson: ph. 907-952-0751 Email: manwhotaku@gci.com

19 Jul (Sat) Rifle Shoot MMMRC Monthly Rifle Shoot CANCELED due conflict with State Rendezvous - Ft. Wick

Pat Reed: ph. 376-6826 Email: patreed@mtaonline.net

27-29 Jul

(FriSun) Fair

Deltana Fair Primitive Camping Demonstration

Delta Jct AK – Set up tents by

Thurs. Fair starts Fri morning

and ends Sun evening

Mary Mathis: ph. 907-715-6352 Email: marym@mtaonline.net

President’s Message:

Summers are short here in Alaska and we find our calendar is filling up fast with all the activities the club has

scheduled. Sometimes I feel we are running in all directions, but the time we spend with our grandchildren

at Rendezvous are ones we hold dear to our hearts. As grandparents the kids grow up fast and we are soon

lost to them in favor of school and friend involvement. I recommend taking the time to bring them with you

to rendezvous, there you can make memories only you share with them. If you ever come to a gathering of

the McKinley Mountain men you will find me, my husband and 8 to 10 grandchildren making memories. Just

maybe they will be the ones who carry on the tradition and history of the McKinley Mountain men, someone

must, or it will be lost forever. Life is short so take the initiative!! President, Mary “2Fires” Mathis

Secretary’s Report:

• The May McKinley Mountainmen’s monthly meeting was called to order by President Mary Mathis at

7:05 pm. Members in attendance were; Rob Bargewell, Bear Kelsey, Russell Kelsey, Jim Anderson, Joe Coe,

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Bob Lochman, Calvin Pope, Mary & Keith Mathis. Jim Wachter, completely new to our club was there to join.

• Calvin Pope made a motion to accept the minutes as they were published in the newsletter and would

stand as published. Rob Bargewell seconded it. The motion passed.

Shoot Reports

• The May Rifle Shoot will be this Saturday, May 19st at 9:00 am. Pat Reed sent email of shoot

description: First outdoor shoot of the season is this Saturday, the 19th of May. It will be held at the Mat

Valley 100 yard range. Start time is 9 AM. Some help moving target frames and bases from the shed to the

range is appreciated. We will be shooting at 25, 50 and 100 yards. Plan on a 25 to 30 shot match. All shots

will be offhand. Some bench matches will be upcoming as the season progresses. Pat

• 1,000 Pistol Shoot was May 5-6 at Mat Valley Sportsman’s range. Keith Bayha reported he had only

four shooters, himself, Pat Reed, Paul Brown, and Jeff Binegar. Not enough to make the shoot viable. He will

consider the possibilities to retain the shoot next year, but its survivability is doubtful. Final scores of the

four shooters were; Keith Bayha 673XXX, Pat Reed 599XX, Jeff Binegar 534, Paul Brown 472.

• The shoot reports for the March 13th Pistol Shoot, the March 17th Rifle Shoot, the April 9th Pistol

Shoot, and the May 8th Pistol Shoot (mislabeled April 8th) were all in the “Other Information” section of the

May Newsletter as they had not occurred before the April meeting, or not reported at that meeting.

Old Business

• Those at the 1000 Pt. Pistol Shoot commented on the Big Bore shoot going on next door on the

100yd.

range. 20 shooters from all over the country shooting big bore modern rifles and black powder

rifles as large as 4 Bore! A possible description of a 4-Bore cartridge is a brass case about the size

of a ½ stick of dynamite with round ball in the end!

• There was no advance payment for the fall AGCA Gun Show or the 2019 Houston Lions Club/Hockey

boosters (Big Lake) Gun Show. Secretary Keith Mathis will assure we have table reserved for each; Fall AGCA

Gun Show. Oct. 13-14, 2018, and the Big Lake Gun Show March 30-31, 2019.

New Business

• A new member was present to sign up, Jim Wachter. He said he was familiar with rendezvousing outside

and had been thinking about it in Alaska for a long time. He found our organization when attending a gun

show.

• Calvin Pope had not been receiving his Muzzle Blasts magazine even though his NMLRA membership was

current. Calvin mentioned this to Rob Bargewell, our Alaska NMLRA Rep. (Assistant Rep. to Keith Bayha),

and Rob relayed the problem to the NMLRA in Friendship. They put together the issues Calvin was

missing and immediately forwarded them to Calvin. Since then, the problem has been solved and Calvin

has been receiving Muzzle Blasts monthly as he should. Its unknown if the problem was with the post

office or the NMLRA, but problem solved regardless of who was at fault.

• Smitty/Jesse report there is still snow in trees and lots of water at Mendeltna. Ed Wick reports snow still

too deep on the field entry with only the east side of the field clear. George Thompson and the

Resonance Re-enactor’s have scheduled the field for that weekend in our absence, so Ft. Wick is not

available for an alternate site for Memorial Weekend Rendezvous. Spring Rendezvous will happen

somewhere, so Booshways, Keith & Mary Mathis, will inform everyone of Memorial Rendezvous location

as soon as it is determined.

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Weather and ground conditions are the biggest factors as is always the case with Memorial Rendezvous

• Birchwood Youth Day is Saturday June 2, the weekend following Memorial Weekend Rendezvous. Jim

Anderson is the POC. Jim was told we should bring our expense receipts and we will be paid at the event.

We need participants to instruct the kids with black powder rifle loading and shooting. 6 or 7 people

minimum, but more makes it easier on all. Rob Bargewell, Keith Mathis, Calvin Pope, Bob Lochman, and

Jim Wachter as well as Jim Anderson have volunteered so far.

• 2018 Territorial’s is June 21-24, at Ft. Wick. Need volunteers to help assembling targets and posting.

• State Rondy 2018 is July 14-22 at Ft. Wick. Roger King and Ed Wick are POC’s with Roger the Booshway

and

Ed the Segundo, however Roger will not be present at the actual Rendezvous! Roger will help Ed prepare,

but Ed will need assistance from those present at Rendezvous to provide activities for the women and

children of the encampment.

• The President, Mary Mathis, heads the Deltana Fair presentation. She reports the Fair Board is extremely

enthusiastic about our returning again this year to the Fair, July 27,28, & 29th. State Rendezvous is

scheduled for 14-22 July, with the Deltana Fair only four days later, on the 27th. Four days in the fact

because we need to be set up on the 26th, before the Fair begins Friday Morning, the 27th. Mary

encouraged the MMMLRC members who usually attend Deltana Fair to not cave-in and not attend due to

the short turn-around from State Rendezvous. A primitive encampment is not well represented with just

a couple of tents and 5 or 6 people! So far, Keith & Mary Mathis, Jeff Binegar, Bob Lochman, and Jim

Anderson have assured Mary they were attending. We need more commitment!

• The weekend before the Palmer State Fair each year is “Founder Day” in Houston Alaska. This year it is

Saturday, August 18th. They have an all-day festival with a parade and a huge firework display that night.

Thousands of people attend the fireworks display with many of them joining in with the festivities during

the day. Keith Mathis has approached the Houston City Council on the possibility of McKinley

Mountainmen setting up a primitive camp and demonstrating our traditions, to include black powder rifle

shooting, camp fire cooking, hawk throwing, etc. Houston is highly in favor of our attendance to the

oneday affair. It would entail setting up our camp the day before Friday August 17th, and tearing down

Sunday August 19th, as the fireworks display is after dark Saturday night which usually is between 11-12

pm.

Exiting of a thousand or so parked cars after the fireworks is a mad-house so tear-down of camp would be

impossible Saturday night until well into the early morning hours. Keith is concerned of agreeing with

Houston to participate, then not having enough participation of club members to make a realistic

presentation of our primitive rendezvous. This whole endeavor would be to attract new younger families

who live locally around Houston, Big lake, & Wasilla and have never heard of McKinley Mountainmen, let

alone know what we do! Our annual presence at the Delta Junction Fair is always a tremendous hit, and

though this is a lot of work setting up a camp for one day, a thousand people will see us who have no idea

we exist! We can demonstrate our historic and family values and encourage the younger generation to

join our club and assure its continuance into the future. The members present had mixed feelings about

the usefulness of this encampment, but Keith will follow up and meet with the Houston Founder’s Day

Committee after Memorial Rendezvous and the Birchwood Youth Shoot.

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Good of the Order

• Snowshoe Gun Club in Sterling wants us to come to their range at Sterling for a match in August. Not

a formal rendezvous but camping on site is allowed. They are flexible to an actual date in August to

accommodate MMMLRC’s function schedule and assure our attendance.

• Mary Mathis was appointed to get and send a get-well card to “Beans”, Jeff Binegar, over his

operation to re-attach his hamstring tendon to his hip and lengthy convalesce.

Meeting Adjournment:

Jim Anderson made motion to adjourn with Calvin Pope seconding. Motion carried, and the meeting

adjourned at 7:50 pm.

Split-the-Pot

• Jeff Binegar was convalescing at home from his Ham String re-attachment operation and we did not

have the split-the-pot can, so the May Split-the-Pot drawing will be held at the beginning of the June

meeting with the June Split-the-Pot drawing at the end of the meeting as usual. Those present who

entered the May drawing will be considered present for the May drawing in June whether present or

not at the June meeting!

$202.00 is left in the can and will be carried forward to the “May drawing” before the June meeting.

Other Information (since the meeting)

• The Memorial Weekend Rendezvous was held on the Todd Hecker Farm located 30 miles south of

Wasilla in the Pt. McKenzie Farm Project. The wind blew chilly off and on, but it was sunny, dry, even hot at

times. It rained Friday night after midnight but other than the grass being a little wet Saturday morning it

was beautiful conditions for a rendezvous all weekend. We had 10 primitive camps & 4 tin tipis. There were

35 full time primitive campers (23 adults & 12 kids); 4 walk-in day campers on Saturday and 2 on Sunday; and

19 visitors throughout the weekend. Everyone agreed the location was beautiful with an easy access, trees, a

lake, an abundance of green grass, and a view of the mountains. Opening ceremony was held at an 8 o’clock

Council fire Friday evening. There were two rifle shoots on both Saturday and Sunday. A lot of the older kids

shot rifles with the men, however the younger ones as usual threw hawks a lot with organized competition

on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday evening the Booshways (all credit goes to Mary Mathis) supplied a

buffet style taco dinner for the entire camp before Council Fire. Then at the Sunday Night Council Fire

everyone brought a desert and we all over indulged on sweets enough to cause a “sugar high” the rest of the

evening. Awards of pokes of gold coins and a prize blanket officially closed the rendezvous Sunday evening,

however those still around Monday morning celebrated Memorial Day, and gave respect to our past, current,

& fallen warriors who have given us the opportunity and privilege to be here in this glorious country.

The farm owner, Mr. Hecker, was unable to attend due to prior commitments, however he was very

accommodating prior and satisfied with how we left his farm upon completion of the rendezvous. He invited

us to rendezvous there again. Keith & Mary Mathis, Booshways, thank everyone who attended, and

especially the ones who came early and helped set up. The 2018 Memorial weekend was a success!

• The Alaska Gun Collector’s Association’s (AGCA) officially sponsored of the 2018 Youth Firearm Safety

Camp a free event held at the Birchwood Recreation & Shooting Park, Saturday June 2nd. Twelve

MMMLRC club members attended instructing the kids to load and fire a muzzle loading rifle. Club

members were Bob

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Lochman, Rob Bargewell, Jim Anderson, Jim Wachter, Pat Reed, Bear Kelsey, Sean Carney, Devin Carney,

Calvin Pope, Keith & Mary Mathis. It was a pleasant day with enough breeze to keep bugs down and

temperature not too hot in the sunny weather. Approximately 300 kids toured in groups of about 30 the

nine station, each familiarizing the kids with a different aspect of fire arms, such as cowboy shooting, muzzle

loaders, full automatic weapons, 22 rifles, map reading and orientation, etc. We were busy from 8 am until 5

pm setting up target, instruction muzzle loading black powder rifles (loading & shooting), and then resetting

targets time after time. A lunch was served by AGCA at noon for the all 300 youth’s and instructors. Many

thanks to all club member who participated.

2018 Memorial Weekend Rendezvous Point McKenzie

Short Access Road to Open Grassy Field

Acres of Grass Foreground, With Trees for a Backdrop, Memorial Rendezvous Assembled

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A Final Salute in Memory of Those Who Gave Their All for Us to Be Free

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2018 AGCA Youth Firearm Safety Camp Birchwood

Recreation Center / Firing Range

Black Powder Station at Birchwood Range on AGCA Youth Day

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MMMLRC Crew who worked Youth Day (Minus Sean Carney) Bob

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Lochman, Devin Carney, Bear Kelsey, Keith Mathis, Rob Bargewell,

Mary Mathis, Pat Reed, Jim Anderson, Jim Wachter, & Calvin Pope

Last group of kids to shoot, cleaned up all of our shot-up plastic bottle targets!

Joseph Doddridge; Attack On My Fathers Fort

When we received advice at my father’s fort of the attack on Rice's blockhouse, which was but a

few miles distant, we sent word to all those families who were out on their farms to come immediately

to the fort. It became nearly dark before the two runners had time to give the alarm to the family of Mr.

Charles Stuart who lived about three quarters of a mile from the fort. They returned in great hast saying

that Stuarts house was burned down, and that they had seen two fires between that and the fort, at which

the Indians were encamped. There was, therefore, no doubt that there would be an attack on our fort

early in the morning. In order to give the reader an idea of the military tactics of our early times I will

give, in detail, the whole progress of the preparations which were made for the expected attack and, as

nearly as I can, I will give the commands of Capt. Teter, our officer, in his own words. In the first place

he collected all of our men together, and related the battles and skirmishes he had been in, and really they

were not few in number. He was in Braddock's defeat, Grant's defeat, the taking of fort Pitt and nearly

all the battles that took place between the English, French and Indians, from Braddock's defeat until the

capture of the place by Gen. Forbes. He reminded us, “that in case the Indians should succeed we need

expect no mercy, that every man woman and child would be killed on the spot”. They have been defeated

at one fort and now they are mad enough. If they should succeed in taking ours all their vengeance will

be on our heads. We must fight for ourselves, our wives and children, brothers and sisters. We must

make the best preparation we can. A little after daybreak we shall hear the crack of the guns. He then

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made a requisition of all the powder and lead in the fort. The ammunition was appropriately divided

amongst all the men, and the amount supposedly to be sufficient. When this was done, Now, said the

captain, “ when you run your bullets, cut off the necks very close, and scrape them, so as to make them

a little less, and get patches one hundred finer than those you commonly use, and have them well oiled,

for if a rifle happens to be choked in the time of the battle there is one gun and one man lost for the rest

of the battle. You will have no time to unbreach the gun and get a plug to drive out the bullet. Have the

locks well oiled and the flints sharp so as not to miss fire. Such was the orders to the men. He then said

to the women; “These yellow fellows are very handy at setting fire to houses, and water is a very good

thing to put out fire.” You must fill every vessel with water. “Our fort is not very well stockaded, and

these ugly fellows may rush into the middle of it and attempt to start fires at twenty places at once.” They

fell to work at once, doing as he had ordered. The men having put their rifles in order, “Now,” says he,

“let every man gather in his axes, mattocks, and hoes, and place them inside of his door, for the Indians

may make a dash at them with their tomahawks to cut them down and an axe might hit where a gun

would misfire.” Like a good commander our captain, not content with giving orders, went from house to

house to see that everything was right. The ladies of the present day will suppose that our women were

frightened half to death, with the prospect of such an attack of Indians; on the contrary, I do not know

that I ever saw a merrier set of women in my life. They went on with their work of haling water and

cutting bullet patches for the men apparently without the least amount of emotion of fear, and I have

every reason to believe they would have been pleased with the crack of the guns in the morning. I was at

that time thirteen or fourteen years of age but ranked as a fort soldier. After getting my gun and all things

else in order I went up into the garret loft of my father’s house, and laid down about the middle of the

floor, with my shot pouch on and my rifle at my side, expecting to be waken-up by the report of the guns

at daybreak, to take my station at the port hole assigned me, which was in the second story of the house.

The family that was supposed to be killed had come into the fort about daybreak. Instead of the house

being burnt it was only a large log on fire, near the house. Seen by our expresses. If they had seen

anything like fire, between that and the fort, it must have been fox fire. Such is the creative power of

imagination when under the influence of fear.

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McKinley Mountainmen Muzzle Loading Rifle Club Membership Application

Date:

Name: Spouses Name:

Mailing Address: City, State, Zip:

Email: Home Phone

I want the newsletter EMAILED to me: YES NO Cell Phone

Please circle your muzzle loading experience level Novice Intermediate Expert Range Officer

NRA membership? Yes / No

Member Number: NMLRA Member? Yes / No

Member Number:

Membership Rates:

Individual: $30 / yr Family: $35 / yr Life: 10 x annual rate

Circle one: New Member Renewing Member Life Membership

Names / Ages of Children if family membership:

P.O. Box 770555, Eagle River, Alaska 99577-0555